One Step Closer
by DieHardKataang
Summary: Every breath, every hour has come to this. KATAANG. Please R&R!


_A/N: Ummm okay sooo I guess I am in a SUPER Kataangy mood lately because this is my third oneshot in like...four days. I wrote most of it yesterday because I was sick, the idea came to me, and I had nothing better to do. I finished it today because I'm still sick and I'm procrastinating on doing homework._

_Anyyywho, this song you guys, good lord it's gorgeous. If you haven't heard it, go listen to it RIGHT NOW! It's so beautiful and just perfect. It's also PERFECT for Kataang, don't you think?! But yeah, it really helps to know the song while reading this because it really sets the mood for the fic and adds dramatic effect, especially near the end._

_So...yep! That's all I got! As always, pleeeaseee write a review! I love reviews, whether they're just a quick comment or constructive criticism!_

_Enjoy!_

_Disclaimer: I still don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender, much to my displeasure. Nor do I own "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri because I cannot write a decent song to save my life... *heavy sigh*_

* * *

_Heart beats fast, colors and promises_

Katara stands on the balcony right outside the bedroom that she would soon call her own. She gazes out into the horizon, marveling at the beautiful shades of purple, orange, and red that the sunset is bringing, highlighting the beauty that is the Southern Air Temple. She breathes in the evening air and exhales shakily. _This is it_, she thinks, _it's finally happening._ She has been waiting for this day for what feels like forever. She can feel her heartbeat pick up as she thinks about what the future has in store for her, and every moment in the past that has brought her to right here, right now.

_How to be brave,_

_How can I love when I'm afraid to fall?_

She thinks back to her journeys with Aang, and how terrified she was when she realized she might be falling for him. She couldn't even contemplate adding the stress of a relationship on top of the war that they were working so hard to end…the war that they were destined to end.

_But watching you stand alone,_

_All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow._

She smiles when she thinks of how silly the idea seems now. She realizes how much wasted energy she put into hiding her feelings from Aang, and how it likely would have made things so much simpler if she had just given into him. _Everything's clearer in hindsight I guess_, she thinks with a smile.

She now knows for certain that there is nothing better than being in love with Aang. He makes her feel things she never knew possible. He challenges her to open her mind to all sorts of new and wonderful possibilities. He gives her more love than she has felt in her entire life. He is her rock, her foundation, her best friend, and by the time the sun sets, he would be her husband.

_One step closer…_

"Katara, it's time," Suki says as she pokes her head through the door. Aang and Katara had decided to make both the Kyoshi Warrior and Toph the Maids of Honor, for they are two of the most important people in the young couple's lives. "You ready?"

Katara takes one last look at the beautiful sunset before turning to Suki and saying softly with a content smile, "You know, I think I've been ready for this my whole life."

_I have died every day waiting for you,_

_Darling don't be afraid, I have loved you for a thousand years_

As she walks to the doors of the sanctuary where the ceremony is to be held, Katara thinks of the fourteen years she spent without the privilege of knowing Aang. She realizes that she never truly lived until he came into her life. She spent her entire childhood sheltered from the world, forced to remain in one place for all that time. It wasn't until Aang came along that she discovered how big the world really was compared to her little village in the South Pole. He showed her things she had been waiting to see her whole life.

_I'll love you for a thousand more…_

The smile on her face grows as she imagines, for what seems like the thousandth time, her future with Aang. From this day forward, nothing will ever be able to come between them. She knows that she will have to take the good times with the bad and the smiles with the tears, but she also knows that Aang will be there through it all. She knows he will never leave her, and she would never even think about leaving him.

Katara knows that she will love Aang forever, and by the time the doors to the sanctuary are open and her father is at her side, her smile is beaming brighter than it ever has before.

* * *

"This is it buddy, you ready?"

Aang isn't entirely sure how to answer Sokka's question. As he stands at the forefront of a room decorated with flowers and candles and filled with close friends and his soon-to-be family, Aang feels like an absolute wreck. His hands shake and begin to sweat, which is something entirely new to him. He can feel his heart beating so fast that for a few seconds, he thinks it may burst. He has never been so nervous in his entire life.

And he knows it's silly. He's been waiting for this day practically from the moment he woke up in Katara's arms five years ago. He was more than ready. He was excited, elated even.

"Yeah, yeah I am."

Right after he utters the words to his best man and future brother-in-law, the doors to the sanctuary open. Aang swears that his heart has stopped dead in his chest.

_Time stands still,_

_Beauty in all she is,_

In his seventeen years of living (not counting his century's slumber in an iceberg, for he was never truly alive in all that time), Aang had never seen anything more beautiful. There was Katara, draped in a wedding gown of ocean blue, the same gown her mother had worn at her wedding. Her hair was done up in an elegant pony tail and pinned with a veil that nearly dragged the ground. But it wasn't the gown, or the hair, or even the sight of the engagement necklace the he had put so much effort into crafting fastened around her neck that made Aang feel like time had completely frozen.

It was her smile. It was the smile that she reserved only for him. A smile filled with happiness, excitement, and love. Aang's own face breaks into a smile of awe, for he can't believe that the moment he has anxiously waited so long for is finally here. He has no idea how he got so lucky.

_I will be brave,_

_I will not let anything take away_

_What's standing in front of me,_

Aang straightens himself to his full height and watches his soon-to-be wife walk down to her future…to their future. Hakoda is on her right arm and he holds her tight, preparing himself to give away his baby girl.

Aang doesn't blame him for being anxious to let her go. He couldn't even do it himself. But he knows that not a single force on the earth could ever take away the love between them. He is prepared to protect her, to fight for her, to do all the things that her father had done for her for the past nineteen years, and so much more.

_Every breath,_

_Every hour has come to this._

Aang knows that they were destined to be together. Every event that has happened in their lives, both the good and the bad, has brought them to this moment. All the time he spent trying to win her over was finally paying off. All the pain, sadness, fear, and anguish that they had been through over the years is finally worth it.

A distant memory triggers in Aang's mind: _"Maybe somehow there's a bright side to all this." "I did get to meet you!"_

Aang had never believed his own words more than he did now. He realizes that everything he had to go through brought him to Katara. Everything happened the way it was meant to be. For the first time, he didn't regret running away all those years ago. Sure, it was a mistake, but it was a mistake that brought him straight into her arms, and he could never regret that.

_One step closer…_

Katara makes it to the end of the aisle, where she stands with her father.

Aang and Katara had decided to give Zuko the honor of marrying them. Being the Firelord, he had the ability to do so and the couple wouldn't want anyone else to do it for them.

"Who gives this woman away?" says Zuko.

Hakoda takes a deep breath and firmly says, "I do, her father." He places a kiss on Katara's forehead before heading to his seat next to Kanna, tears of joy coating his eyes. An empty seat sits on the other side of him, reserved for the woman who sacrificed herself to save her daughter.

Katara stands before her love. As she looks in his stormy grays, he looks into her crystal blues. Zuko's words barely register in their minds as they take in one another. They can hardly stand the anticipation.

_I have died every day waiting for you,_

_Darling don't be afraid,_

_I have loved you for a thousand years,_

The time had finally come for them to say their vows. Aang goes first. He looks deeply into Katara's shimmering blue eyes, takes a deep breath, and pours out his heart to his beloved.

"Katara, my beautiful, amazing Katara. There aren't enough words to describe how much I love you, but I'll do my best. From the moment I woke up in your arms after being trapped in that iceberg, I knew I had fallen in love. Every day we spent on our adventures around the world, I found myself falling even harder. And after almost a year of traveling with you, I realized something. Every time I have ever fallen, you have been there to catch me. You have never let me hit the ground, whether it be physically or emotionally. But this time Katara, I'm okay with falling. I cannot wait to spend every day for the rest of my life falling more and more hopelessly in love with you.

"It's a funny thing…even though I know I am falling, you make me feel like I'm flying. You make me feel like I'm flying higher than my airbending could ever hope to take me. And I know, without a single doubt in my heart, that you will make me feel this way forever."

A single tear slides down Katara's face as she listens to the words of her love. Aang smiles and uses his thumb to gently brush it away, and allows his hand to remain cupping her cheek as he continues.

"_I love you_, Katara. You are my one and only, my net when I fall and my glider when I fly. You are my Forever Girl."

_I'll love you for a thousand more…_

"I solemnly vow to love and protect you for as long as I live. I will never leave you, and I will always respect and cherish you. You are the single most precious thing in my life, and I won't let anything come between our love. I vow to be the best possible husband I can be, and to take care of you as best as I am able. I will _always_ love you, Katara. I have never been more certain of anything in my entire life."

_And all along, I believed I would find you._

_Time has brought your heart to me,_

_I have loved you for a thousand years,_

His vow complete, Aang removes his hand from Katara's face and takes her hands in his. She smiles up at him and squeezes his hands, letting him know that he said exactly the right things.

Katara realizes that it is now her turn to recite her vows, and she freezes. Her heartbeat quickens and her body tenses up. Sensing her unease, Aang squeezes her fingers and gives her a wide, reassuring smile. Upon seeing his face light up, all of Katara's worries melt away. She squares her shoulders and gives Aang the most loving look she is capable of, her eyes half-lidded and her lips forming a content upward curve.

"Aang, _my_ Aang, I will spend the rest of my life trying to figure out how I became so lucky to fall in love with someone as incredible as you. Shortly after we first met, my Gran Gran told Sokka and I that our destinies were forever intertwined with yours. I understood her words then, but it isn't until now that I am able to truly grasp the verity of her statement. We were fated to meet eachother, that I'm sure of. And although it took me a while to realize it, I fell in love with you during our journeys. I know that, no matter what happens, we will always be together. You have changed my life in ways I never could have imagined.

"You are _so_ good to me, Aang, and I know you always will be. Avatar or not, you will always be my hero, my saving grace. We may have saved the world together, but you saved _my_ world. You _are_ my world. You have shown me things I never could have imagined growing up sheltered in the South Pole. You gave me a life I never even dared to dream of having. _You_ set me free. And for that and all you've done for me, I will love you forever."

_I'll love you for a thousand more…_

"I vow to love you with every breath I breathe for the rest of my life. If you are ever to fall, I promise to be right there to catch you, like I always have been. No matter much time or how many miles lie between us, I vow to remain firmly by your side. I promise to try my hardest to be the wife you deserve, for I have no idea how I came to deserve you. I will treasure you until my dying breath and into eternity. Nothing can ever take away what I feel for you. My heart is entirely yours, Aang…and it always will be."

Aang can barely choke back the tears welling up in his eyes. A few of them even escape down his face as he completely takes in his future wife's words. Aang knew she loved him, but to hear her say it like that, in front of everyone closest to them… it just made his heart grow even warmer.

_One step closer…_

Once the sniffles from loved ones in the crowd had settled down and all attention was completely focused on the bride and groom, Zuko turns to Aang.

"Do you, Avatar Aang, take Katara to be your wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health for as long as you both shall live?"

Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Aang says with absolute and total confidence, "I do."

Zuko smiles at his best friend and then turns to Katara, who is absolutely beaming.

"Do you, Master Katara, take Aang to be your husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health for as long as you both shall live?"

Katara has no idea how she could possibly smile any wider, and yet somehow she still manages to do so. She looks at Aang with soft eyes and an open heart, and practically whispers to him, "I do."

Zuko looks to Aang and then back to Katara before saying, "I know pronounce you husband and wife."

_One step closer…_

"You may kiss the bride."

_I have died every day waiting for you._

As his lips entwine with hers, Aang knows he will never fly any higher than he is at this moment.

_Darling don't be afraid,_

Katara loses all sense of time and space as she stands with Aang. The rest of the room seems to fade away until it is nothing but the two of them, symbolically sealing their love forever with this one simple gesture. Katara feels as if she's falling for Aang all over again.

_I have loved you for a thousand years,_

_I'll love you for a thousand more._

Once they part, they are completely deaf to the cheers, whistles, and tears of joy and happiness that surround them. They only gaze into each other's eyes and drink in the moment.

They are married. Husband and wife. And they would be so for as long as the world kept turning.

_And all along, I believed I would find you._

_Time has brought your heart to me,_

_I have loved you for a thousand years._

They walk down the aisle hand in hand, brilliant smiles never leaving their faces. They both know that a whole new chapter of their lives has just begun, and as they leave the room full of smiling faces and celebration and walk out into the peaceful nighttime air, they can see their entire future set out ahead of them, just waiting to be discovered. The now-married couple knows that their love will live on forever, whether it be through stories of their adventures or passed on through their children…for true love _never_ dies.

_I'll love you for a thousand more._

* * *

A/N: Don't forget to review please! :)


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